The Body's Defenses Against the Mind
In The Body's Defenses Against Itself , Fatima has an obsession with the perfection of her body, both in the original narration and in her frequent flashbacks to adolescence. In her retelling of those teenage memories, this means she is preoccupied with being thin, especially in contrast with Christinia: "Her stomach made her one of the heftier girls in the class, and when I got up the courage to look down on her, I made a point of flaunting my thinness—the only desirable thing about my body—over her tendency towards chubby" (Thompson-Spires, 54). Fatima feels a loss of control because of her experience with hyperhidrosis and the constant competition between herself and Christinia, so she uses the perfection of her body as a coping mechanism, giving her some semblance of confidence while also gaining her an edge over Christinia. Fatima's obsession with her body expands beyond her looks, and into the issues of her everyday bodily function. In the flashbacks, she narrat...